yesterday morning in albuquerque, new mexico and then from here, the president will travel to richmond, virginia, aides say the president likes going to different parts of the country, having conversations with voters to talk about how they were affected by the economic down turn and to try to make the case for what he has done to try to help the economy. last night the president was in madison, wisconsin at the university of wisconsin trying to energize the youth vote which was obviously quite critical to his election two years ago. here is a sample of his message in tone. >> i know sometimes it feels a long way from the hope and excitement that we felt on election day or the day of the inauguration, but i've got to say, we always knew this was going to take time. we always knew this was going to be hard. i said it was going to be hard. remember? >> so the president today hosting a couple of backyard discussions, will be here and if there are any curve balls thrown his way, we'll be on top of things. back to you. >> gretchen: mike, thank you very much. let's head to steve. >> steve: thanks. a s